First, look at your family traditions.\u00a0 What is really important to you?\u00a0 Do you have to have extravagant meals and give everyone you come in contact with a gift?\u00a0 You may want to share a meal with the family and have everyone bring their favorite dishes.\u00a0 Also, drawing names for family gifts will decrease the number of gifts you may need to purchase.\u00a0 Shop with cash, and leave your credit card at home so you are not tempted to spend more than your budget.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I find that shopping sales and purchasing things ahead of time helps save a LOT of money.\u00a0 I start shopping for next year\u2019s Halloween party things this year.\u00a0 When things are discounted at 90%, they are really inexpensive\u2014and I already know that someone will need plates, napkins and goody bags.\u00a0\u00a0 I store them with the Halloween decorations so I don\u2019t lose them\u2014and have saved a bundle!\u00a0 This works with Christmas gifts too!\u00a0 If someone you know really wants gardening equipment, looks for the sales in the early fall.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about timing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Shopping for food ahead of time may not be the best thing to do\u2014but watching the sales is!\u00a0 Turkey is always really inexpensive right before Thanksgiving.\u00a0 The prices per pound is the cheapest\u2014so purchase more than one and freeze it for later in the year.\u00a0 There are always sales on staples needed for big meals \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Finally\u2014you don\u2019t have to spend a lot of money to have a great time.\u00a0 Looking at Christmas lights with the family, than returning to have hot cocoa is very enjoyable\u2014and cheap.\u00a0 Think outside of the box to do things that you may not have done before\u2014you may find a new tradition!\u00a0 Happy holidays!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Halloween to the Super Bowl\u2014family and friends gather, and there is usually food and sometimes gifts involved.\u00a0 This can be hard on your waistline and your checking account!\u00a0 Statistics speculate that the average household spends over $1600 during the holidays.\u00a0 This year finds many families struggling financially, and adding the holidays to their load shouldn\u2019t put them over the Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[94,95,96,97,98,1087],"class_list":["post-4632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c","tag-add-new-tag","tag-christmas-gifts","tag-holiday-budgets","tag-holidays-on-a-budget","tag-money-savings","tag-c","cat-55-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/gardeningtools-300x2461.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4632"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8817,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4632\/revisions\/8817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/christmas-tree.jpg\" "\\"christmas-tree\\"")
<\/a><\/span><\/span>(stuffing, potatoes, etc\u2026) and for baking.\u00a0 Stock up early.\u00a0 I start purchasing a few baking supplies every week starting in October.\u00a0 This spreads out the cost, and then I can also start baking for the holidays and freezing my goodies, so I am not rushed closer to Christmas.<\/p>\n